Chapter 537: A Last Hand

"I... will be leaving... on my own." Aether felt his heart beat like crazy; he hated it. He hated moments like this; he wanted to never be in a position like this ever again. But he also knew that he needed to do this.

He couldn’t just ignore it.

Sofia’s smile fell completely, but not because she was disappointed or mad, but rather because she was confused by his decision. "You want to leave? But why? You’re safe with us, and we are making good progress."

"Well." Aether put his hand on the back of his neck. "Sure, I’m safe, but that isn’t a priority for me. Ever since I awakened, I’ve only been in dangerous situations; I got used to it to a certain degree. I’m not scared of being alone in this place."

He looked away to the people in the camp.

"And sure, progress is happening. But not fast enough."

He paused for a second, reconsidering his words, just in case he was making a mistake, but the small flame inside him kept telling him to continue. And it wasn’t the only one; his gut was pushing him to leave too.

"Plus... I’m done doing nothing but hoping." He said, turning towards Sofia, who was surprised to hear his response. She took some time to think about his words, but after a while, she sighed as her smile appeared again.

"Damn it, just when I get to see my brother again, after so many years when I wasn’t able to see him grow, here he is, ready to leave once again."

Aether tilted his head. "You aren’t... mad? Or sad?"

Sofia chuckled. "I am a bit sad; I won’t lie about that. It’s hard for me not to be, but mad? No, I could never be mad at such a thing."

...

"It’s your decision what you want to do in life. I don’t want to be holding you back from doing what you want; I’m not that selfish, so if you want to leave, I won’t be against your decision. I won’t force you to stay with us."

Aether sighed in relief, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "That’s good to hear... it makes this much easier for me." ... "And you plan on staying, don’t you?"

Sofia nodded, putting a hand on her hip. "Of course... I truly believe in this exploration; if there is a way out, we will find it. And if there isn’t, then we will make it, no matter how much time it will take; we won’t give up."

He bit the inside of his lip; he had expected her to stay; though, it would have been nice if she came with him. But still, she had an actual role in this party; unlike him, she couldn’t just let all the people here down.

Responsibility is quite wicked, funny, since normally, she isn’t one to take on roles like this.

"So when are you leaving?" Sofia asked, wanting to know just how much they had left.

"I haven’t decided..." He didn’t want to waste time... but he also felt like leaving today wouldn’t be the right decision; he wanted to enjoy one more day. "Tomorrow, I’ll be taking my leave tomorrow."

"Then..." Sofia walked behind him as she started to push him back to the others. "You better enjoy this day. Since it’s your last." Being pushed in a crowd of people, one of them recognized him, wrapping his arms around him.

"Aether! How well do you know poker?"

Looking at the others, Aether noticed their faces... how they stared at him with a lot of greed... he had never played before... and the others probably also thought he was a beginner, one that they could steal all his money from, not that money was important here... he wasn’t even sure money was what they used to bet.

"Poker?... No, never... but how about we play another game."

The man’s eyes widened, intrigued. "Oh, and what game are we talking about?"

...

...

...

As night fell, Aether counted all the coins he had accumulated, and there were a lot. After all, when it came to blackjack, he was quite good, especially when it came to being a dealer, even if it’s supposed to be more luck-oriented... he had a few tricks of his own that helped him win.

But even as a player, he was great. And his success showed, since he had won all the games... True, whenever they switched to poker, he lost a lot of coins, but they then all tried challenging him back at Blackjack, so he got it back.

Either way, he had nothing to do with the money, but it was nice to know that he beat them all.

Seeing the fuss, Keres took notice, approaching him. "Wow, there, don’t make my men cry. It’s not nice." He said, sitting down in front of him. "Come on, let’s play a round."

Aether shrugged his shoulders. "If you say so. But if I win, you have to say that the Withered is better than the Blue Rose." He said, as he gave Keres two cards, a Q and another 10.

"Uf..." He frowned slightly as he also gave himself two cards: a J and the other, of course, mystery, upside down.

"So, what do you want to do?" Aether asked Keres, who seemed quite confident in his cards.

"Isn’t it obvious?" Keres said, chuckling. "I mean, my chances of losing are about 4%; I’ll take that."

"If you say so," Aether said, winking at Keres, who, after seeing the gesture, panicked, but it was too late, as Aether had already flipped his upside-down card, which was an Ace.

"Look at that, I won." He chuckled. He had already known he had won ever since before drawing the cards, he sensed them with Eden and gave them away in a certain way that he got the 21... Ironic, since he could also see the cards in poker, he was just horrible at the game; it also didn’t help that he learned to play while actively playing.

"Now come on, spit it out."

Keres frowned, clenching his fists; he knew that Aether had somehow cheated, he just didn’t know how. "... The Withered is better than the Blue Rose..."

Aether chuckled. But he was also proud; he had gotten the Prince of the Blue Rose to say that after all.

...

A part of him was going to miss this.